Born: 1/2/1936 Birthplace: Fort Worth, TX Deceased: 10/25/1992 Year in Country Music Hall of Fame: 1995
Biography
Roger Dean Miller, born in Fort Worth, Texas on January 2, 1936, was the youngest of three brothers. His father died when Roger was 13 months, and his mother soon became seriously ill. Each of his father's three brothers took one of the boys to raise, and Miller grew up in Erick, Oklahoma, where he learned to play the fiddle.
Quitting school in the eighth grade, he supported himself with odd jobs until military service during the Korean Conflict. During the last year of his duty he was assigned to Special Services in Atlanta where he led a country band.
A sergeant, eventually got Miller an audition with Chet Atkins of Nashville's RCA office. The audition was a failure, but Miller stayed, getting occasional songs recorded and putting out a few records on a small label, before moving back to Amarillo, Texas to support his pregnant wife. There he was hired to play fiddle for Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys. After Price had a monster hit with Miller's song, "Invitation To The Blues," Miller became one of the hottest songwriters around, with such hits as Ernest Tubb's "Half A Mind," Faron Young's "That's The Way I Feel" and Jim Reeves' "Billy Bayou," "If Heartache Is The Fashion" and "Home."
A later recording deal with RCA produced one big hit, "When Two Worlds Collide" (co-written with Bill Anderson), but by 1964 Miller wanted to leave Nashville and give acting a shot. A massive recording session for Mercury's Smash label produced 18 songs and netted Miller $1800 which he used to move to Hollywood and take acting lessons. The songs recorded included "Dang Me" and "Chug-A-Lug," and Miller gladly quit acting school to promote the monster hit of "Dang Me," which spent six weeks at #1 in 1964 and helped Miller take home five Grammy awards.
Miller followed up with hits like "King Of The Road," which stayed at #1 for five weeks in 1965, sold over a million copies and won him six Grammys. After his recording career cooled, Miller wrote the score for the Broadway musical, "Big River," which won seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, in 1985.
Miller died October 25, 1992 of cancer. He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995.
Awards
•Academy of Country Music Single of the Year 1968 •Grammy Best Country & Western Album 1965 •Grammy Best Country & Western Song 1965 •Grammy Best Male Country & Western Vocal Performance 1965 •Grammy Best Country & Western Album 1964 •Grammy Best Country & Western Song 1964 •Grammy Best Male Country & Western Vocal Performance 1964 •Grammy Best New Country & Western Artist 1964
